Internet Solutions Company Throws Light on Commonwealth Games

Businesses looking for a high-tech web site
solution should look no further than Peterborough-
based Quarella. The company has recently completed
the contract to develop a cutting-edge lighting
control software system for the new Manchester
City Football Club stadium that hosted the
Commonwealth Games
in July and August.

Although Quarella's main area of expertise lies
in developing database-driven and e-commerce web
sites, the high profile project has drawn on many
similar areas of software development, creating a
database backend, which can distribute data over a
network to control over 9,000 stadium lights.

"Whether we are developing an e-commerce site
or a cutting edge lighting control system, it is
essential to our clients that we create a system
that cannot fail. No matter how sophisticated the
system it must be reliable. An unstable system can
very quickly lead to an embarrassing loss of
credibility with serious implications for loss of
revenue", explained Andrew Cater, Senior Developer
at Quarella.

The sophisticated lighting control system was
installed in collaboration with Clipsal C-Bus
Lighting Solutions, which produced the system
hardware.

"With such an important project being seen by
the world it was key that the C-Bus and C-Lution
software integrated seamlessly", explained Guy
Madgwick, General Manager at
Clipsal Integrated Systems.
"Quarella not only achieved this but
expanded the capability of the system to offer
many more excellent features to help the client in
the future. A prestige project commands the best
integrator and programming companies available and
we got them both."

Quarella also worked with
enLIGHTen,
specialists in integrated building information
systems, who provided Quarella with essential
hardware advice to develop the multi-functional
control software.

"Quarella have a lot of professional pride in
developing the very best software solution for
their clients' needs", explained Ian Meikle of
enLIGHTen. "Throughout the project they sought to
excel expectations and have helped to develop,
what I believe to be, the most advanced lighting
control system of any stadium within the UK".

The system controls the lighting throughout the
stadium, including floodlights, tower lighting and
blue LEDs on the top of the towers and along the
roof of the building, which when dark give the
illusion that the roof is floating over the
stadium.

The PC-controlled system allows the user to
pre-programme events on a number of graphical
screens, so that the lighting can be automatically
sequenced. Pre-programming also allows the
floodlights to be switched on prior to the event
to ensure that they have heated up in time to
provide adequate lighting.

Such automatic control avoids the risk of human
error in forgetting to activate the lighting at
critical times and prevents the operator from
accidentally switching off the lighting during an
event.

Additional cutting-edge features includes the
system's ability to vary the lighting intensity in
line with ambient light and interface with the
fire alarm system to ensure safety lighting in the
event of evacuation.

The system has also been designed for ease of
maintenance, alerting the user to the need for
lamp replacement to minimise the risk of lamp
failure during an event.